Education about Religions in the Age of Globalization : Who, Why, and What?(<Special Issue>Religious Education and Transmission)

Abstract

The pedagogies of religious education have been changing worldwide in this age of globalization. Drawing upon recent international discussions, this article critically reexamines what has conventionally been called "shukyo chishiki kyoiku ('teaching/learning about religions' or 'religion teaching')" in Japan, in terms of who, why and what. It is mainly based upon researches and arguments in the special issue on religious education of Numen, and the last several years' issues of British Journal of Religious Education, as well as my own latest work (Kyokasho no nakano shukyo [Religions in Textbooks], Iwanami, 2011) and my comparison between England's Non-Statutory National Framework of Religious Education and ministerial documents of Quebec's new "Ethics and Religious Culture" program. Special attention will be paid to how opinions are divided upon the impartiality of religious education in the Western contexts. The article will finally argue that the current Japanese way of teaching about religions, which is a legacy of the early modern Japanese version of Bildung movements, is highly problematic if the education is expected to play a role in intercultural education. It will yet question whether or not the Western model of multiculturalism can be directly applied to the Japanese context, admitting that Japanese society is also increasingly being diversified ethnically and religiously.